The Common Dreams news team works hard to bring you real news that matters—which is often about how the world is. But we also work hard to bring you the voices of visionaries who dream about how the world should be.

We believe that informed, inspired and activated people can change the world—and create a more sustainable, more just, and more peaceful future built on our common dreams.

But independent journalism and democracy itself have never been more needed yet more fragile and at risk than now. We must fight on. Please support our critical End-of-Year Campaign.

Students with the group Fossil Free Stanford calling for the university to "divest the rest" and pull their holdings from all fossil fuel companies. (Photo: Fossil Free Stanford)

Hundreds of Stanford University professors published an open letter on Sunday demanding that the university divest the entirety of its holdings from all fossil fuel companies.

"If a university seeks to educate extraordinary youth so they may achieve the brightest possible future, what does it mean for that university simultaneously to invest in the destruction of that future?" asks the letter addressed to university president John Hennessy and the school Board of Trustees.

Coming in the wake of the May 2014 Board of Trustees announcement that the school would not invest in publicly traded coal companies—a decision the university faculty praised for setting a "precedent of responsibility and integrity"—the letter reasons: "Given that the university has signaled its awareness of the dangers posed by fossil fuels, what are the implications of Stanford's making only a partial confrontation with this danger?"

Even after coal "is taken out of the equation," the world's oil and gas holdings still represent 978 gigatons of carbon, or nearly double the 565 gigaton cap. Thus, the decision to divest from coal, the group argues, is not enough.

"The urgency and magnitude of climate change call not for partial solutions, however admirable: they demand the more profound and thorough commitment embodied in divestment from all fossil-fuel companies," the letter states.

The letter was signed by 303 Stanford faculty members from a wide range of academic departments. Among the signatories are former Stanford president Donald Kennedy, and two Nobel Prize winners, Professor Douglas Osheroff (Physics, 1996) and Professor Roger Kornberg (Chemistry, 2006). Also included is Professor Maryam Mirzakhani, who was among the 2014 recipients of the Fields Medal, which is known as the 'Nobel Prize of Mathematics.'

According to the Stanford Daily, as of August 2013, the university's investment has an approximate value of $18.7 billion.

The faculty letter comes just weeks after the student campaign Fossil Free Stanford pledged that they would make 2015 the year they "finished what they started," by calling on the university to "divest the rest" after the coal divestment. On their Facebook page, Fossil Free Stanford praised the faculty support.

"When university faculty get this organized, you know something momentous is happening," said university senior Michael Peñuelas, who serves as the faculty liaison for Fossil Free Stanford.

The Stanford letter follows a series of similar faculty initiatives, including a Harvard Faculty for Divestment letter with 226 signatories, and a Faculty Association resolution at the University of California, Berkeley.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

This is the world we live in. This is the world we cover.

Because of people like you, another world is possible. There are many battles to be won, but we will battle them together—all of us. Common Dreams is not your normal news site. We don't survive on clicks. We don't want advertising dollars. We want the world to be a better place. But we can't do it alone. It doesn't work that way. We need you. If you can help today—because every gift of every size matters—please do.

Further

To those who consider Trump a reptilian shape-shifter, mazel tov: Now he officially is one. Thanks to a species-naming auction for Rainforest Trust, a small, blind, worm-like, newly discovered amphibian who buries its head in the ground will be named Dermophis donaldtrumpi. The name, says its creator, is "perfect" for the new caecilian, from the Latin for "blind...perfectly mirroring the strategic vision (Trump) has consistently shown towards climate change.”

Common Dreams brings you the news that matters.

Sign up for Newsletter

Connect With Us

Support our common dreams.

Can We Count on Your Help Today?

Common Dreams is a small nonprofit with a big mission. Every day of the week, we publish the most important breaking news & views for the progressive community. To remain an independent news source, we do not advertise, sell subscriptions or accept corporate contributions. Instead, we rely on readers like you, to provide the "people power" that fuels our work. Please help keep Common Dreams alive by making a contribution. Thank you. - Craig Brown, Co-founder